Many of us are familiar with the famous Disney interpretation, in the animation Fantasia, of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Mickey Mouse, tasked with doing a lot of washing up, casts a spell, so that it is done for him. All well and good … initially. But his instructions are taken literally, without limit … and he can’t stop them.

I am thinking that AI is the technological equivalent to that spell. Seeking to have things done for us, without having to put the effort in, to speed things up, because we are lazy and impatient, we take what we think is a shortcut.

But shortcuts often don’t work, do they?

And look at the motivations here: to save us time and effort.

And now, look at the motivations behind all of this AI: corporate technological bosses wanting to increase their profits.

Sorry. Not all, but most of the drivers behind AI do not have ordinary people’s needs at heart.

We, said ordinary people, heard it all in the Industrial Revolution: it will make our lives easier, simpler. And some automation has indeed done that: a washing machine, for example! But look at all the resources that are being used to make our lives, supposedly, simpler and easier.

So too with AI. Yes, I value having some technological assistant summarising a document for me or identifying an image, like magic. But neither it, nor us, know when to stop, do we?

I have just been looking at what Google’s Gemini could do for me, assuming I had the latest Android smartphone with it all enabled: it could answer my emails for me, for example. Freeing my time up to do what exactly? Be creative? Nah. Gemini can do that too.

And if other people are using Gemini (other AI assistants are available) to create their messages, blogs and videos what is it I am receiving in my inbox, which I will leave to my AI assistant to respond to anyway. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

AI, in a reasonably advanced form, is now available to anyone with a reasonably advanced smartphone. I have looked at what it can do for me and decided that, far from helping me, it will merely make me feel less valid and valuable. I could either let it take over … or spend all my time trying to control it. And, as all these high-tech companies and their big bosses make millions more dollars, I am left no better off.

But many will be taken in by it and will be swept along by the promise of magic. Will The Apprentice have a Master who can actually stop it? And will they want to?

To gauge the current state of play I asked Chat GPT, on my aging, basic, smartphone what a cross between a polar bear and a zebra would look like. In less than a minute it had come up with this:

Stunningly clever even I have to admit. But when an idea can be rendered into such a realistic looking image in only seconds, I do fear for the artists of this world.

So, the magic of AI: is it white magic or black magic? AI itself is, of course, only a tool that can be used for good or ill. But given the ever dark threat of materialism and consumerism, those of us who are able need to be on our guard. Now that the genie is out of the bottle (to mix a few metaphors), how can we best work with this AI wizard without being drawn into a spiral of dependency on it?

As an end user or consumer: I’m actually looking forward to the days when all of these web bots and online chats are operated by genuine AI, which can understand my often tricky and non-standard situations … and have had sufficient training to know when they cannot answer my question and will put me on to a human who can!

Other than that, I know that I will be exposed to all sorts of fake news, spam, scams and AI generated material much of which will not be in my best interest. Somehow I need to be alert to these dangers, to be able to spot them and rise above them.

If we are in a position to use AI directly, or to be part of its development, then we need to be particularly discerning, and to recognise the responsibility we have in this role. Are we using AI merely to feather our own nests? Or is our intent coming from a deeper place, from an awareness of the potential for genuine growth for humanity that we now have at our disposal?

And how do we do all this discernment and awareness? As this Conscious Evolution Today site is all about, by being present, by being in the eternal now, connected to the reality of that moment. From such a state of mind we just know when we are being exposed to a deep fake, or being peddled some AI tool we don’t actually need.

I conclude by inviting you to reflect on the above picture of this wonderful creature, let’s call it a Zeblar Bear, to watch Disney’s Fantasia and see for yourself how much we each need to be ever more aware and conscious, if AI is to be humanity’s saviour … and not its downfall.